Media Day: When the Photos Hit Your Phone

This week my phone started buzzing.

Not with emails. Not with coach replies. With photos. Media day photos.

You know the ones — the player standing in the fresh kit on the perfectly cut grass, stadium behind them, looking like they belong there. Because they do.

I've been doing this for 16 years, and those photos never get old. Every single time one lands in my inbox or my WhatsApp, I stop what I'm doing and look at it properly. Because I remember the first conversation. I remember the family sitting in their living room, nervous, not sure if this whole US college thing was real or just a dream they were being sold. I remember the kid saying they just wanted a chance to play at a higher level and get their education. And now they're standing in a college kit on a college field on media day, and it's real.

That's the part nobody sees. The part between "maybe we should look into this" and the media day photo. The part where a kid from Perth or Canberra or Sydney decides to get on a plane and go and prove themselves against players from all over the world.

Finn

Finn's from Perth. He was playing in the Perth Premier League — made first grade as a younger player, which in Australia means something. You're playing against men, you're holding your own, and you're doing it before most kids your age are anywhere near that level.

But Finn looked at the landscape and made a decision that most Australian players are too scared to make. He decided to leave. Not because he wasn't good enough to keep playing at home — he was. But because he wanted to test himself against players from everywhere. French academies. South American pipelines. European development systems. The kind of players who end up in US college soccer because they're chasing the same thing Finn was — high-level competition plus a degree.

He landed at Harcum College, an NJCAA Division 1 program in Pennsylvania. For those who don't know, NJCAA D1 is serious JuCo soccer. These programs recruit internationally, they play to win, and the rosters are full of players who either couldn't qualify academically for a four-year school or chose the JuCo route to develop and transfer up. Either way, the standard is high.

Finn got off the plane and walked into a roster full of international players. Some came from top academy environments in Europe — in his case, guys from the French leagues. Players who grew up in structured, professional development systems from a young age. And within weeks, Finn pushed through and earned a starting spot. A kid from the Perth Premier League, starting alongside and against players who came through European academy systems.

That's what happens when you give a good player the right platform. They rise.

Ella

Ella Palframan's story is different, but it hits me the same way. She's from Canberra. She went to Tyler Junior College — an NJCAA D1 women's program in Texas that is a genuine national power. We're talking top-ten nationally, year in and year out. They've been to national championship games. They recruit globally. The standard is as high as it gets in JuCo women's soccer.

Ella went there, became a regular starter, and proceeded to do what good players do at strong JuCo programs — she attracted attention. D1 programs came calling. D2 top-flight programs came calling. She had options, real options, from programs across multiple divisions.

She chose Campbellsville University. NAIA. Kentucky.

If you only ever chase the D1 name, that decision probably doesn't make sense to you. Why turn down D1 for NAIA? But Ella knew what she was looking for, and it wasn't a label. She wanted the family aspect. She wanted the faith aspect. She wanted a program that played at a level she could continue to grow at, with infrastructure that would support her both as a player and as a person, even at a smaller school. She found it at Campbellsville, and she chose it with her eyes open.

The Campbellsville Connection

Here's the part that gets me. Campbellsville isn't just where Ella ended up. It's where Lauren Woodcock called home.

Lauren was one of ours too. She started at Daytona State College — the back-to-back NJCAA D1 national champions. From there she went to Lincoln Memorial University, NCAA Division 2, in Tennessee. Then she landed at Campbellsville, same as Ella. Lauren had a standout college career, and when her playing days were done, she didn't leave. She stayed. She became the assistant coach of the women's soccer program while she chased her master's degree.

Now she's playing in Europe.

And now Ella is walking the same campus, wearing the same colours, playing for the same program. Two Australian women, different timelines, same pathway, same school. That's not luck. That's a network doing what it's supposed to do.

Why This Matters

The families who come to me are usually stressed. They've been told their kid needs to chase D1 or it doesn't count. They've been told scholarships are everything and if it's not a full ride, it's not worth it. They've been told that JuCo is for players who couldn't make it anywhere else.

Every single one of those things is wrong.

Finn is starting at an NJCAA D1 program against players from French academies. Ella chose NAIA over D1 offers because she found the right fit. Lauren went from JuCo to D2 to NAIA and is now playing professionally in Europe. None of those stories fit the narrative that gets sold to Australian families. All of them are real, and all of them happened because these players and their families trusted the process and found the right level — not the biggest name.

The media day photos this week? Those are the receipts. That's the proof. Kids from Perth, from Canberra, from Sydney — standing on college fields in the US, in fresh kits, looking like they belong. Because they do.

If your kid is good enough, there's a program out there that will want them. My job is to find it. And when the media day photos start coming through, I'll send them to you too.

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John Stevanja
Upper 90 College | 16 years. 700+ placements. 6 national champions.
www.u90college.com.au